Madoff, Merkin and Money

This is coming a little late, but I just got to it, so cut me some slack. New York Magazine has a tremendously reported piece about the rise and fall (mostly the rise, though) of Bernie Madoff and the man behind his largest feeder fund, hedge fund manager Ezra Merkin. The story depicts the two men as foils, yin and yang.

Madoff, an outer-borough tough, clawed his way up from Queens over the privileged goons of Wall Street in the ’70’s. Merkin, though, was a child of privilege. Erudite in matters ranging from Talmudic law to economic theory, he followed in his father’s prominent footsteps, serving on the boards of Yeshiva, the Fifth Avenue Synagogue and other charitable outfits.

How the two came together and then fell apart is a fascinating look at the Madoff disaster.